“I – drink – your – milkshake!”

To merely call Daniel Plainview a caricature of the dark side of American capitalism would not do Daniel Day-Lewis’ achievement in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” enough justice. Metaphoric purposes aside, Plainview is a man capable of both ends of the human spectrum: quiet introspection and hyperbolic intensity, paternal responsibility and sadistic inhumanity. He adopts and rears a son, H.W., sends him away to a school for the deaf after a terrible accident, and later dismisses him as a “bastard in a basket.” He clashes with a fanatical evangelist, Eli Sunday, and proceeds to humiliate him every which way with verbal invective, physical abuse and, ultimately, a bowling pin. (Click here to read more…)

The films of Alfonso Cuaron are distinguished by their extraordinary cinematic ambience. Their narratives effortlessly transcend generations and cultures, intimate portraits of characters whose trials and tribulations mirror the spectrum of the human experience. From rural Mexico to Hogwarts to dystopic Britain, Cuaron’s works alternate between original screenplays and literary adaptations, creating an array of contrasts that work wonders in cinematic form: real and imaginary, somber and uplifting, nostalgic and adventurous.

Along with fellow compadres Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (”Amores Perros”) and Guillermo del Toro (”Pan’s Labyrinth”), Cuaron played a central part in shaping the direction of the new Mexican cinema. After experiencing early success in his native country with 1991’s “Solo Con Tu Pareja,” Cuaron went abroad to adapt Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “A Little Princess” and Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” to the screen, the latter relocated to contemporary New York City. With intricate characterizations and rich visual flair, Cuaron’s 1990s films saw him put his unique directorial signature on a variety of different works. (Click here to read more…)

“Basra” begins with its protagonist, photographer Tariq (Bassem Samra), falling out of love in depressing fashion. “Don’t cry, ” he whispers gently to his inconsolable wife, moments after signing the final document. “By divorce, or by death, we separate.” Dismal as it is, the film’s opening sequence suggests not so much an end as it does a beginning, a gateway to a world of alienated individuals’ feelings sprouting from the seeds of political turmoil. Through Tariq’s unique perspective, director Ahmed Rashwan transforms modern-day Cairo into a place struggling to move from the past to the future, where dreams are born and destroyed and the fine line between time and space is indefinitely blurred. (Click here to read more…)

At first glance, steely-eyed, well-dressed Abu Laila (Mohamed Bakri) hardly looks or talks like a taxi driver. Later, it turns out that the occupation only slightly befits him; a former judge who resorts to driving cabs for a living after the government failed to pay his judicial wages, the protagonist of Rashid Masharawi’s “Laila’s Birthday” cuts a figure of world-weary austerity. He dismisses a young couple who plan to dally in the back seat, reprimands passengers who neglect to fasten their seat belts and refuses to drive anywhere near a military checkpoint. Abu Laila’s harrowing journey begins in the early hours of the morning and continues until the evening, as does the film itself.

Set in Ramallah, the Palestinian city on the West Bank and de facto capital of the Palestinian National Authority, “Laila’s Birthday” follows its protagonist as he navigates through a regular day on the job, encountering a myriad of different people and situations—except the day in question actually marks a special occasion. His daughter Laila (Nour Zoubi) is celebrating her seventh birthday, and Abu Laila promises to return home in a timely fashion with candles and cake, heeding the words of his wife (Areen Omari): “Listen to me. Interior problems, exterior problems, problems from the occupation…it’s your daughter’s birthday tonight, okay?” Acknowledging her with a half-smile, Abu Laila drives away, ostensibly unaware of the absurd day that lies ahead of him. (Click here to read more…)

Standing under the ornate fixtures of the spacious Castro Theatre movie hall, Palestinian filmmaker Najwa Najjar spoke with elegant, commanding grace. “The idea behind my movie title derives from an old Palestinian proverb: Every pomegranate has one seed that comes from heaven,” Najjar explained. Minutes later, her debut feature “Pomegranates and Myrrh” screened as the opening film for the 13th annual Arab Film Festival, bringing an rich tapestry of characters and the trials and tribulations of life in modern-day Palestine to the big screen with understated panache.

The plot centers on a young Palestinian couple and their extended families, creating complicated sketches of daily life amidst the sociopolitical problems that plague their surroundings. Israeli Defense Forces soldiers with rifles patrol the East Jerusalem separation wall checkpoint; age-old tensions rumble silently beneath the barren landscapes of Ramallah; families operate under strict codes of tradition. Kamar (Yasmine Elmasri) practices Palestinian folk dancing while her husband Zaid (Ashraf Farah) tends to his olive oil farm, and all seems tranquil until an Israeli family launches a mysterious raid on the farm one night, confiscating its treasures. Zaid is falsely accused of attacking an Israeli soldier and is taken prisoner; traumatized, Kamar seeks solace from her in-laws and an emotional boost from the local pub owner Umm Habib (Hiam Abbass), before beginning a complicated relationship with Kais (Ali Suliman), her new dance choreographer. In their conflicted world, interpersonal relationships become strained, uncertainties build on one another—yet hope never subsides. (Click here to read more…)

The 18th annual Berkeley Video & Film Festival ran last Friday and Saturday at Landmark Shattuck Cinemas; being fortunate enough to attend a majority of the event, I decided on the spot to compile a running diary of sorts. Friday’s screenings were as follows.

7:20 PM: Seats are filling quickly in the air-conditioned screening room. A man wearing a baseball cap with graying hair is speaking at the podium; behind him, a row of golden statuettes resembling Oscars regally await their recipients. Mel Vapour, director and co-founder of the Berkeley Video & Film Festival, thanks members of the audience for their support before congratulating the festival honorees for their submissions.

7:25 PM: Accepting a Grand Festival Award for his 11-minute short feature “At Night,” filmmaker Max Landes is all smiles. “I think an Oscar from the East Bay Media Center is so much better than an Oscar from the stupid Academy,” he says, setting the tone for the night.

7:30 PM: Festival kicks off with Don Arbor’s “Obama Won,” a light-hearted music video celebrating the current Commander-in-Chief’s victory in last November’s presidential election. Juxtaposition of news footage and internet clips with live recording footage projects warm grace.

(Click here to read more…)

Rapper/actor Mos Def, whose fourth solo album The Ecstatic was released on June 9, kicked off his summer tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota last Saturday. The 15-week nationwide tour will feature three stops in California from September 3-6, including San Francisco and Oakland. Noted vocalist Erykah Badu will also be performing exclusively at the California tour dates.

September 3: San Francisco, CA
Location: Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall
September 4: Oakland, CA
Location: Paramount Theatre
September 5: Hollywood, CA
Location: Hollywood Palladium

Image Sources: Downtown Records, Motown Records

John Hughes, director of seminal teen comedies such as “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” died of a heart attack today in New York City, leaving behind a cinematic legacy as unabashedly mainstream as it was gently, distinctively humane.

A prolific writer, director and producer during his lifetime, Hughes was the creative force behind some of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s and early 1990s, including “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and the “Home Alone” franchise.

Image Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Derek Yee’s “Shinjuku Incident,” starring Jackie Chan, Xu Jinglei, Daniel Wu, Naoto Takenaka. 120 min, H.K.

Derek Yee’s “Shinjuku Incident” begins with a flock of illegal Chinese immigrants riding waves of opportunity to the shores of Japan in the early 1990s and ends with its most illustrious member floating away on an irreversible current of ruin; call it a reversal of karmic proportions. A search for a lost love becomes a dream for glory, and with it arrives unwelcome guests: demons of greed and complacency, tucked away under fleeting disguises of brotherhood and honor.

Much has been said about the film being Jackie Chan’s first attempt at serious drama. For all its quiet nobility, his performance here is neither revelatory nor disastrous. The venerated action icon plays the role of Steelhead, a tractor mechanic from Northeastern China who enters Japan illegally in search of his girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). Working a variety of meager jobs in the bustling Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Steelhead befriends Jie (Daniel Wu), a headstrong young opportunist with unspoken inner fears. Together, Steelhead and Jie form their own gang in an attempt to preserve national identity and provide a haven for other fellow Chinese immigrants.

Their idealistic ventures hardly last long, as a rise to prominence means having to deal with every other entity struggling for control of the district: city police, organized Yakuza, factions of other established Chinese and Taiwanese gangs. As he and his companions become embroiled in disputes that veer straight into perilous territory, Steelhead finally stumbles upon his former girlfriend – only to discover that she has married the local influential Yakuza boss (Masaya Kato). Through a dizzying chain of events, Steelhead makes an unlikely rise to power within the Tokyo underworld, unbeknownst to the growing chaos that threatens to split his former posse apart. A strange friendship with a tough police inspector (Naoto Takenaka) begins to play a major role as the film careens toward an improbably Shakespearean denouement.

The underlying moral of Derek Yee’s mob saga is hardly new: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Brutal sequences of gangland retribution are juxtaposed with touching depictions of harmony and humanity. The film’s most major pitfall lies in its uneven pacing, which certainly takes away some of the narrative’s staying power and results in a somewhat unsatisfying final movement. Yet even during its weaker moments, this flawed commercial noir manages to paint a compelling portrait of fallen heroes, oddly serene in the face of certain death.

“Shinjuku Incident” premiered in major Asian countries on April 2, and is currently available in DVD/Blu-Ray format. A stateside release date has yet to be announced.

Image Source: JCE Movies Limited

Richard Kelly on the set of “Donnie Darko” in 2001.

It’s no great stretch to say that Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales” polarized film academia back in 2007, both at Cannes in its rough form and after its theatrical release in the United States. Just as New York-based critics Manohla Dargis and J. Hoberman raved about it, so the rest of the nation was more or less baffled by it; any trace of a consensus dissipated in a firestorm of controversy over the film’s artistic merits. Kelly’s idiosyncratic pastiche of post-apocalyptic tropes was either the product of a visionary or completely, dangerously incoherent: a movie either years ahead of its time or simply an atrocious waste of time.

That a film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Justin Timberlake could generate so much attention is a testament to the promise of Richard Kelly. The 34-year old USC graduate is perhaps best known for his 2001 debut, “Donnie Darko,” a psychological thriller about a troubled teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) apparently suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. What begins as a tale of suburban teenage angst morphs into an arrestingly original sci-fi piece, with Kelly displaying a knack for genre-bending rarely seen in first-time directors. The film quickly attained cult classic status.

While “Donnie Darko” and “Southland Tales” vary considerably, one notion is evident: Kelly is certainly no hack (although his detractors will say otherwise), and artistic integrity is an important factor in his filmmaking process. Whether he can continue his streak of individuality remains to be seen, but for now, his third film is due on October 30 and appears to be shaping up well. (Click here to read more…)